Fifty Works for Fifty States: New Hampshire

August 8–September 2, 2012

In 2008, the Hood Museum of Art was selected as the New Hampshire museum recipient of fifty works from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection. Dorothy and Herbert Vogel are somewhat unusual art collectors. Now retired, Herb worked for the U.S. Post Office and Dorothy was a librarian. After their marriage in 1962, they developed a deep interest in the New York contemporary art scene. They began collecting and, using only their civil servants' salaries, acquired over four thousand objects. The Vogels befriended many young artists, many at the beginnings of their careers, and often purchased works on paper in order to store them more easily in their modest apartment. Their collection is strong in minimal and conceptual art, especially drawings, but moves beyond those categories. Much of the Vogels' collection was given to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., but in 2007 they decided to distribute 2,500 works nationally. Dubbed the "50X50 project," they donated fifty works to one institution in each state. The Hood Museum of Art was honored to be the New Hampshire institution designated to receive this important gift.

The Hood is marking the Vogels' gift with the exhibition The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States: New Hampshire, which includes artists such as Richard Nonas, Robert Berry, and Lynda Benglis. Much of the Hood's gift consists of works on paper, including a small abstraction in graphite and silver paint by Michelle Stuart titled July, New Hampshire. Intimate pastels by Edda Renouf seem to glow gently, while curved hills undulate in Bill Jensen's gouache Terra Firma. Much of the work is done on sketchpad paper, giving it an informal feel. The gift includes two groups of works, the first a bound book of forty-three drawings by Jene Highstein, done in a spare minimalist style, and the second a series of delicate watercolors on lined notebook paper by seminal postminimalist Richard Tuttle. In contrast to these are two lively collages from Stephen Antonakos's Travel Collage series and a figurative painting by John Clem Clarke, an artist known for his pop art imagery, painted with a photo-realistic technique.

The Hood Museum of Art, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The presentation of this exhibition at the Hood Museum of Art has been generously funded by the Harrington Gallery Fund.

Update, July 23, 2012: It is with great sadness that we report that Herbert Vogel has died at age 89. The staff at the museum extends deepest condolences to Dorothy Vogel.

Excerpt from the National Gallery of Art Press release:

HERBERT VOGEL, RENOWNED CONNOISSEUR AND COLLECTOR OF CONTEMPORARY ART, DIES AT 89WORKS COLLECTED OVER FIVE DECADES WITH WIFE DOROTHY RESIDE IN COLLECTIONS THROUGHOUT UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON, DC― Connoisseur and collector of contemporary art Herbert Vogel died from natural causes at Kateri Residence, New York City, on July 22, 2012. He was considered by many to be a visionary and among the earliest collectors who championed minimal and conceptual art in the 1960s. After marrying Dorothy Faye Hoffman in 1962, he inspired her to join his pursuits, using his salary as a U.S. postal clerk to purchase art while living on what she earned as a librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library. Over five decades they redefined what it meant to be an art collector. Despite their modest income and small apartment, they amassed a world-class collection of more than 5,000 works that have been distributed to museums throughout the nation, with the majority going to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Their story has inspired generations of passionate contemporary art collectors.

Related Events

8 August, Wednesday, 12:30 P.M.Second-floor galleriesLUNCHTIME GALLERY TALK"Herb and Dorothy: Collecting in New York from the 1960s through the 1990s"Amelia Kahl, Coordinator of Academic Programming

22 August, Wednesday, 7:00 P.M.Arthur M. Loew AuditoriumFILM SCREENINGHerb and Dorothy (2008), 89 minutesThis award-winning biographical movie tells the story of a postal clerk and a librarian who managed to build one of the most important contemporary art collections in history. Offered in conjunction with the Hood's installation of objects from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection.